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ISPs Seek to Shut Down Municipal Broadband

Commercial Internet
service providers will face off today against broadband access advocates in North Carolina, where lawmakers in the House public utility committee are slated to vote on a proposal aimed at preventing
municipalities from offering broadband service in the state.

Internet service providers Time Warner and Embarq are backing the measure, which imposes a host of potentially crippling
financial terms on cities and towns that want to build high-speed Internet networks.

Among other provisions, the law would prevent cities from using revenue from other public utilities to finance
broadband networks. The measure also appears to prevent cities from using federal stimulus funds -- including the $4.7 billion Congress specifically allocated to improve broadband -- to build new
networks.

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The incumbents argue that the financial terms will prevent towns from gaining an unfair advantage over commercial providers. "We think there needs to be a level playing field if the
municipalities that we pay taxes to are going to compete with us," says Marty Bocock, director of governmental affairs for Embarq.

But opponents to the measure say it is aimed at protecting
incumbents from competition. Among the critics is Google, which this week sent a letter to the North Carolina House warning that the measure "will thwart public broadband initiatives, stifle economic
growth, prevent the creation or retention of thousands of jobs, and diminish quality of life in North Carolina." Other signatories include Alcatel-Lucent, Educause and the Telecommunications Industry
Association.

Consultant and analyst Craig Settles says that around two dozen cities throughout the country have built their own municipal broadband networks -- and that jobs have followed.
"They're creating a pro-business resource, from which the city generates revenue," he says.

Settles adds that some towns that have provided broadband have seen a surge in people running
home-based businesses, such as eBay stores. Also, at least one town in Louisiana was able to use its fiber-optic network to lure a new call center to the city, generating 600 new jobs, Settles says.

Three towns in North Carolina have already created their own networks -- largely because residents wanted faster and cheaper service than what the incumbents offered. The city of Wilson, for
instance, built a fiber-optic network that offers residents service at Web speeds of 10 Mbps in both directions, more than 80 cable channels and a digital phone plan for around $100 a month.

"Even though we're a small city, we believe our citizens deserve the best service available. We asked the cable/landline companies to provide it and were turned down so we built it ourselves," writes
Wilson's Public Affairs Manager Brian Bowman on SaveNCBroadband, a blog devoted to opposing the law. (Wilson would be exempt from the new
legislation.)

A bill similar to the one in North Carolina is also pending in Pennsylvania.

The Telcos and Cablecos have had their chance for better than a decade and have failed us. They have NO INTENTION of providing adequate service but will continue to try to leverage their existing physical plant (copper/cable.) Even when they use fiber they only provide the SAME paltry speeds.

We can do FAR BETTER and FAR SOONER by doing it for ourselves: see http://communityfiber.org. Would you like GIGABIT SERVICE TO YOUR HOUSE FOR UTILITY RATES? Then FORGET the "telco" and "cableco" -- they will NEVER OFFER THIS to you. But you and your TOWN can get started on a Fiber network almost IMMEDIATELY, and have GIGABIT service within less than a year at many locations, if you start now.

And the best part is: no telco, no cableco; no data dipping, no spying, no filtering, no blocking, no artificial pricing tiers, and no more denial of accountability. And no more obnoxious saturation advertising both FAILED services (phone/cable.) Who needs them anymore? We DON'T.